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In the first of a continuing series, Sara McCrea '21, a College of Letters major from Boulder, Colo., reviews alumni books and offers this selection for those in search of insight and inspiration. The volumes, sent to us by alumni, are forwarded to Olin Library as donations to the University's collection and made available to the Wesleyan community. In 2004, Susan Lanzoni ’85 read an O Magazine interview of then U.S. Senator Barack Obama, in which he said that, more than America’s budget or trade deficit, he was concerned about an “empathy deficit” in our country. The use of the…

Wesleyan's students of color presented their annual SOC Fashion Show April 11 in conjunction with WesFest 2019. Models worked with designers to create styles that showcase their bodies of color. Photos of the event are below: (Photos by Rebecca Goldfarb Terry '19) (more…)

For three days, Class of 2023 admitted students and their families had the opportunity to learn all about Wesleyan during the 2019 WesFest. Held April 10-12 on campus, WesFest provided campus visitors with multiple information sessions, campus tours, department open houses, attend-a-class opportunities, keynote speakers, meet-and-greets, student performances, a student activity fair, a concert on Foss Hill, and more. Wesleyan received a record 13,358 applications for its Class of 2023, offering admission to 2,114 students (15.8%) from one of the most competitive, diverse applicant pools in the University’s history. Of those who were admitted, more than 500 attended WesFest. An additional…

A paper by Zhaoyu Sun '20 was published in the April 2019 issue of The Yale Review of International Studies. The article, titled “Critical Comments Among Chinese Netizens – Before and After the Cyber Security Law" is based on a research paper he wrote for his CEAS 385/GOVT 391 Legacies of Authoritarian Politics course last fall. The class was taught by Joan Cho, assistant professor of East Asian studies; assistant professor, government. Sun, a College of East Asian Studies and government double major, explained that despite the growing availability of information within China and the country’s increased linkage to the West, the coercive actions…

Johan (Joop) Varekamp, the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, presented three papers during the Commission on Volcanic Lakes (CVL) program held March 18-20 in Taupo, New Zealand. The papers were coauthored by Wesleyan students, graduate students, recent alumni, and faculty. The CVL is a scientific, nonprofit organization of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI), connecting researchers that seek to understand how volcanic lakes relate to volcanic activity and their hazards. Varekamp, who also is the Smith Curator of Mineralogy and Petrology of the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History and professor of earth…

A new species of fish discovered in Brazil was recently named in honor of Wesleyan Professor Barry Chernoff. Scientists encountered the Bryconops chernoffi in Rio Ipixuna—a small tributary of the Rio Maicuru, which feeds into the lower Amazon River in Pará, Brazil. Samples of the fish were collected by researchers on four trips in 2014–15, and in March 2019, Zootaxa released an article describing the new species. Chernoff, the Robert Schumann Professor of Environmental Studies, focuses his research on freshwater fishes in North America and the Neotropical region, primarily those in South America in the Amazon. He's also professor of earth and environmental…

Molecular biology and biochemistry graduate student Brandon Case and Professor Manju Hingorani are coauthors of a study published in Nucleic Acids Research in March 2019. The paper, titled “The ATPase mechanism of UvrA2 reveals the distinct roles of proximal and distal ATPase sites in nucleotide excision repair,” reports new findings on how the UvrA2 protein uses its ATPase activity to probe DNA for damage lesions, such as those caused by UV radiation, and initiate nucleotide excision repair (NER). This DNA repair process corrects tens of thousands of lesions introduced daily into the human genome by UV rays and chemical agents. (more…)

Three Wesleyan students will conduct laboratory research in India this summer as recipients of the U.S. Department of Education’s Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program (UISFL) grant. Claire Glickman '21, Guadalupe (Lupita) Sanchez '20, and Jaye Jeong '20, will work at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai. Their grants are being administered by the College of Integrative Sciences, with support from the Fries Center for Global Studies. Wesleyan received the two-year $165,699 grant to support the teaching of Hindi and Urdu, the research of STEM faculty and students in India, and the increase of cultural programming related…

Adult neurogenesis, a process whereby new neurons are added to the brain, is thought to be confined in mammals to just a few regions, including the hippocampus, a structure important for learning. Whether this process occurs in the adult human brain is controversial, but in most other mammals that have been studied, adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus appears to be essential for forming memories. Producing new neurons in the adult hippocampus is regulated by the environment, mood, exercise, diet, and disease. In some forms of epilepsy, the production of new cells in the hippocampus, called granule cells, becomes highly abnormal and…

On April 4, students from Wesleyan for Women and Children (WesWAC) attended a fundraiser dinner banquet for ABC Women’s Center at St. Clement’s Castle in Portland, Conn. They were accompanied by University Roman Catholic Chaplain Father Bill Wallace, Adjunct Professor of Spanish Octavio Flores-Cuadra, and several members of the community. ABC Women’s Center provides free and confidential pregnancy resources and services to women and families in the greater Middletown area. Since the nonprofit doesn't receive federal funding, all services are supported by individual contributions, donations, and fundraisers. The banquet's theme was Strong As She. Proceeds will help ABC with its new initiatives such as…

Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, “Academic rigor, journalistic flair.” In a new article, Associate Professor of Mathematics Christopher Rasmussen writes about his recent collaboration with other number theorists to create a computer package to solve a problem called the "S-unit equation." Using computers to crack open centuries-old mathematical puzzles In mathematics, no researcher works in true isolation. Even those who work alone use the theorems and methods of their colleagues and predecessors to develop new ideas. But when a known technique is too difficult to use in…

On April 4, the campus community gathered in Memorial Chapel for the 28th Annual Hugo L. Black Lecture on Freedom of Expression. This year's speaker was Jelani Cobb, the Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism at Columbia University, winner of the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism, and a staff writer for The New Yorker. Cobb spoke on “The Half-Life of Freedom: Race and Justice in America Today." Born and raised in Queens, New York, Cobb is a graduate of Howard University and Rutgers University, where he received his doctorate in American history. Cobb frequently writes about…

“You Just Have to Read This…” 3 Books By Wesleyan Authors

Students of Color Present Annual Fashion Show

Class of 2023 Admitted Students Experience All-Things-Wes at WesFest 2019

Paper by Sun ’20 Published in Yale Review of International Studies

Varekamp Presents Papers at Volcanic Lakes Meeting in New Zealand, Receives Award

Fish Species Named After Professor Barry Chernoff

Case, Hingorani Coauthor Study on Repair of DNA Damaged by Sunlight

3 Students Awarded Summer Research Grants in India

Naegele Lab Releases New Study on Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Students Attend Banquet to Support Local Women and Children

Rasmussen in The Conversation: Using Computers to Crack Open Centuries-Old Mathematical Puzzles

Race and Justice in America Today Topic of Hugo Black Lecture